'We may condemn, but we don’t silence individuals': Purdue president defends faculty

Share

Reforms of campus free-speech policies have occurred across the nation — resulting in major implications for typically outspoken faculty and staff.

Due to Purdue University’s free speech policies, Mitchell Daniels, the university's president, said he was obligated to defend Bill Mullen, an American studies professor, and founding member of the Campus Antifascist Network. The remark came after the professor’s network demanded the removal of white supremacist posters on campus.

“We may condemn, but we don’t silence individuals in the university community, regardless how offensive or preposterous their remarks or writings may be,” Daniels said in an email to the professor.

Purdue’s free speech policy has a green rating by the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education, the highest rating a university can have.

“President Daniels' defense of faculty — even those who are his staunchest critics — should be the norm on college campuses,” Joe Cohn, the legislative and policy director for FIRE said in an email.

Mullen said that while he does believe his First Amendment rights are protected at the university, the email from Daniels was an attempt to tarnish his reputation.

In the email, Daniels said to Mullen, “In the past, I have had to defend your right to speech that was widely interpreted as racist, in the form of that oldest of bigotries, anti-Semitism.”

Mullen said he and other professors have been unfairly labeled as anti-Semitic by Daniels due to their support for Palestinian human rights. He said it's ironic he is being smeared as anti-Semitic, as he was protesting swastikas on campus and asking for an investigation of white supremacist posters.

“The administration attacked the people fighting racism and gave a pass to racists,” he said.

UNC’s free speech policy also has a green rating from FIRE, but Altha Cravey, a geography professor at UNC, said she feels the administration is targeting her because she has been an outspoken critic of UNC-system President Margaret Spellings' agenda.

“I’ve been singled out, I’ve been ridiculed, I’ve been kicked out of meetings,” Cravey said. “I honestly think they’re trying to fire me. I think they’re trying to set me up so as to fire me.”

UNC’s trustee policy regarding academic freedom says the University is committed to upholding the First Amendment rights of faculty and staff.

“The faculty member has the right to enjoy the same freedoms as other citizens, without institutional censorship or discipline, though he or she should avoid abuse of these freedoms,” the policy says.

“The new policy is sort of Orwellian, because it’s framed in terms of free speech,” she said. “But it’s not about free speech, it’s clearly about punishing students that speak up and faculty that speak up.”

Cravey believes the policy is a pattern of the University not allowing faculty to voice criticism.

“It shows that the University at this moment, and those that are running the University at this moment, are not committed to a variety of viewpoints,” she said. “They don’t want to tolerate any dissent.”